Syria rejects Arab League decisions "completely"

Syria rejected on Sunday an Arab League resolution that included calling for a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force, backed support for the opposition and reaffirmed Arab economic sanctions on Damascus, Al Arabiya television reported.   

In a brief headline, the channel reported that Syria rejected the Arab decisions "completely". It did not give further details.

The Arab League called on Sunday for the U.N. Security Council to send a joint U.N.-Arab peacekeeping mission to Syria and decided to scrap its own monitoring team, according to a resolution approved by ministers and obtained by Reuters.     

The resolution called for "opening communication channels with the Syrian opposition and providing all forms of political and material support to it", according to the final resolution drawn up at a meeting in Cairo. It also urged the Syrian opposition to unite.     

The resolution said violence against civilians in Syria had violated international law and "perpetrators deserve punishment". The resolution reaffirmed a call for Arabs to impose economic sanctions on Syria and decided on ending diplomatic cooperation with Damascus.

Arab ministers met in Cairo on Sunday to discuss efforts to end the bloodshed in Syria after Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed Arab League peace plan at the U.N. Security Council.  During the meeting, Elaraby stressed the necessity to increase international pressure on the Syrian regime and stop the bloodshed.          

The meeting opened with the resignation of the Sudanese general who led the monitoring mission to Syria, Mohammed al-Dabi. He had been a controversial figure because of his country's own poor human rights record.          

The League proposed that former Jordanian foreign minister Abdel Elah al-Khatib, the U.N.'s troubleshooter for the Libya crisis last year, be made special envoy for the Syrian crisis.        
For his part, Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Saud al-Faisal called on the Arab League to take strict measures against the Syrian regime and open lines of communications with the opposition.         

Cairo also witnessed a meeting for the six GCC members who decided to expel Syria’s ambassadors, to look into the latest developments of the Syrian crisis.    

Tunisia announced that it will host the “Friends of Syria” meeting on February 24th.